EDITOR’S NOTE: A warm “Welcome to the blogosphere” to my cousin, Allan.  His blog link will also be on my blogroll on the right hand side of the page. Check it, yo!

If you’ve been reading along, you know that I am excessively sentimental and maudlin.  I hate saying goodbye.  I dread it, do not do well with it, and am not good at it all.

Saturday afternoon, I begun the goodbye process by going to lunch with my friend Steve.  This the first of many goodbyes I will be experiencing over the next two weeks.  I close on the house a week from today and hit the road two weeks from yesterday.  As of right now, I have plans to hang out with someone almost every day I have left here.  I’m still waiting on a few people to get back to me on this (hint, hint).

Lunch went fine.  I hadn’t seen Steve in a long while and it was great to catch up.  After leaving Steve, I felt really sad and even tweeted that this was going to be a tough process.  Surprisingly, by the time I was heading to dinner to meet another friend (a few hours later) I was feeling fine.  Hopefully, this process will go easier than anticipated.  We’ll see.

I still vividly remember the day I moved to Ohio.  It was 7/5/1991 and one the worst of my days.  Because of this, I have begun to plan what 7/25/2010 is going to be like.  I’m very laid back and easy going, but when it comes to “events” I’m a planner.  As a maudlin sap, I picture what landmark days are going to be like before they happen.  7/25 is going to be a big day and I’ll probably remember it forever.

My last day here is going to go something like this:

I will wake up, get ready, and take a drive by this house and my “old” neighborhood.  After that, I’ll hit the noon mass at St. Margaret’s church (I am usually at the 10am mass) and take a drive by the house I grew up in on Heritage Way.  Finally, I’ll hit the road and head to my cousin Erwin’s house in New Jersey.

I added the stop in the Jerz because I think it will be too emotional of a day for me to try and drive a lot of hours.  I think it would be fitting to leave down after going to my church and driving by the two Pleasantville homes I lived in.  It will somewhat mirror the drive out of town from nineteen years ago.

The very distinct difference is that this time, moving away is my choice.  This certainly wasn’t the case back in 1991.  On 7/25, I will come full circle with regards to my moves away from Boston.

To me, this is kind of a big deal.